First Impressions (Eventually)
by ozhawk
Summary: Darcy Lewis meets all the Avengers, except Hawkeye. When she finally does, she has the strangest feeling that there's something he's not telling her.
1. Part 1 - Lost

**Author's Note:**

**This is a completed story, written in three parts. It's not part of my usual AU. As always, I love to hear from you! And yes, I'm still working on the sequels to Through A Glass Darkly.**

**Part One - Missing**

She'd never met Hawkeye.

It was odd, when Darcy thought about it. Really odd. She knew all the other Avengers, War Machine, half of S.H.I.E.L.D., several Asgardians (that nutjob Loki, even) the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man (well, not his identity, but they'd talked. And he rolled his mask half up and ate a muffin she'd baked), several X-Men including that asshole Wolverine – but somehow, she'd never met Hawkeye. Even though apparently he'd been right there in New Mexico when this shitstorm all started.

Thor had been the first, the trigger for the crazy that was now her life. Then Coulson (rest in peace, Agent iPod Thief) and a number of what she'd then called jackbooted thugs and now called work colleagues. They mostly left after Puente Antiguo quieted down again, although she later discovered that the scientists who replaced them were all bloody S.H.I.E.L.D. too anyway.

Then came the suddenly suspicious transfer to Norway. The panicky, hysterical, S.H.I.E.L.D.-impeded race back to New York once Jane figured out why they were trying to keep her away. A maxed-out credit-card and flights via London and Iceland (yeah, Reykjavik, DULL) and they'd arrived in a very wrecked New York and got to Stark Tower – the place of the last sighting – right about the time Thor and Loki departed in a whoosh of blue light from Central Park.

Pepper Potts had been lovely and invited them to stay in Tony Stark's mansion. Stark, when he arrived, had also been lovely – very surprisingly given his reputation, but perhaps it had something to do with Jane's beautiful, tearful face or Darcy shoving her boobs aggressively at him while demanding answers – and insisted they stay, giving Jane lab space, Dr Banner as a science playmate and all the equipment and money she could ever want.

Darcy felt a bit useless, replaced by professionals as Jane delved ever deeper into Weird Magic/Science, until Pepper recruited her to help bring Steve Rogers into the modern world. S.H.I.E.L.D. had been doing their own version of that, but it all seemed a bit too much like indoctrination for both Darcy and Pepper's taste. Rogers had very sensibly taken some time off and disappeared on his motorbike for a while after Thor and Loki left, but he showed up back in Manhattan within the week. Couldn't stay away while there were still so many people who needed help. He was at first shocked by Darcy – even though she did her best to tone it down for him – but eventually seemed to adopt her as a sort of slightly insane little sister.

The Black Widow, Darcy met three weeks later, when she showed up at Avengers Tower – now almost completely rebuilt – with a broken arm and a silent rage so intense that even Tony shut up. Natasha barricaded herself in the apartment Tony had built for her for three days.

It was Darcy who asked JARVIS if Natasha had any food in there. And Darcy who scratched at the door and ran away, terrified, before it opened, but not before leaving a box of supplies on the floor. Including a dozen of her home-baked chocolate-caramel muffins.

A note pinned (with a thumbtack, though Darcy had half-expected a throwing knife, and wouldn't _that_ have been creepy) to the door of Darcy's suite in the mansion two days later, said simply 'Thanks. Enjoyed the muffins.'

The handwriting was eerily neat. Particularly since the (very small, heavily redacted) file Darcy had been given on Natasha said she was right-handed, and it was her right arm in the cast. Darcy decided she was still going to be terrified, but it was difficult when Natasha walked into the Avengers Tower penthouse one day a month later when she, Pepper and Jane were having a girls' lunch, plonked two bottles of vodka on the table and said gruffly;

"This lunch isn't liquid enough."

It was Pepper who laughed first and went to fetch shot glasses from the bar. Jane, body weight negligible, was a cheap and affectionate drunk and half an hour later was leaning on Natasha's shoulder with the redhead assassin's arm around her shoulders, the two of them giggling as Jane retold her stories about running over Thor twice. Natasha gave Darcy an appraising, mildly respectful look when Jane told her about the Taser incident, and a couple of days later Darcy opened her door to a knock just after dawn to see Natasha there.

"I'm gonna train you to use more than just a Taser when shit goes down," Natasha said, easily the longest sentence Darcy had heard out of her so far.

Darcy would have protested, but frankly she was still too scared of the Russian.

Of course, the only thing training really managed to do for Darcy was to eliminate her survival instincts. So when things started exploding in the street nearby and she saw a fireball streaking to earth, she started running towards it, not away.

"Oh, I don't think so, sugar," a warm voice said astonishingly close to her ear, just as she got close enough to see a bunch of people in blue suits confronting a weird metal guy. "Not your fight," and she was swooped off her feet with a warm arm around her waist and suddenly flying through the air.

"What the actual fuck!" Darcy screamed when Spider-Man left her webbed to the helipad on Stark Tower (and how he knew where she belonged, she didn't want to know). Natasha cut her out about half an hour later, giggling under her breath all the while, telling her very firmly that they needed to work on her fight or flight instincts and that _fight_ was definitely a last resort.

The kid (Fury told them that he was underage and that they should on no account give him alcohol) turned up a couple of days later and actually apologised. Darcy thanked him and tried to feed him – the poor boy was so thin – and after that he was always turning up when least expected. And most helpful.

The Fantastic Four stopped by too, and Johnny Storm made a point of seeking out Darcy and thanking her very gravely for trying to come and help them. Even though they had it under control. His mouth twitched while he said it and he didn't actually look her in the eyes, but she was used to that.

"Steve put you up to this, didn't he?" Darcy asked suspiciously. Once everyone had noticed (okay, she pointed out) that Johnny and Steve looked like virtual twins, a DNA test and database search had proved they were actually distant cousins. Johnny and Sue's great-grandma was Steve's aunt. Freaky but true. Actual, living family had grounded Steve more than anyone had believed possible. He'd thrown himself headlong into the modern world.

"No," Johnny looked innocent. Or tried. How he had the same face as Steve and couldn't at all pull off the innocent look when it was all Steve wore, no one could quite figure. "I wanted to come thank you all on my lonesome. And if you'd like to come on a date with me all on _your_ lonesome…"

"Dream on," Darcy snorted. "I've heard about the queue. Flame _off_, Rocket Boy."

Susan Storm-Richards joined their girls' lunches, and even though she was possibly even more beautiful than Natasha – seriously, Darcy reckoned it came down to a preference for blondes or redheads – Sue too was incredibly likeable. Her husband disappeared into the science labs with Jane and Bruce and perhaps none of them would never have been seen or heard from again, except that London called.

Where Jane went, Darcy followed. Steve and Natasha were about to go on a S.H.I.E.L.D. mission, Tony was busy (as it turned out) getting his house in Malibu blown up and Pepper nearly killed, and they decided to leave Bruce behind to mind New York. With the Fantastic Four and Spidey, Hulk could handle anything that came up, surely.

With London came Ian, and although they did a bit of a weird flirty dance, and yes, she kissed him (once) when she thought she was going to _die_, dammit, it was a totally rubbish kiss. So Darcy dropped him – yes, literally – and headed back to New York on Jane's heels once London was cleaned up.

London was when the X-Men made their appearance in Darcy's life. The weather weirds had apparently alerted Storm and she collected a crew and came over to investigate, and stayed to help with the clean-up. Darcy liked Storm – all that serenity just made her want to bake – and seriously debated introducing her to Bruce. They could be Zen and fluffy-haired together. Rogue, Shadowcat and Iceman were lovely too. Wolverine? Could kiss her ass. Although he'd probably take that as an invitation.

They got back to New York just in time to find Natasha directing S.H.I.E.L.D. minions where to put Steve's limp body. He was alive but really messed up, and Natasha wasn't much better, though she'd picked Steve off the banks of the Potomac herself, dragged him on board the helicopter and refused to land anywhere but Stark Tower. Her trust in anything but the Avengers appeared to have been eliminated entirely. She even chased the minions out of the Tower once they'd settled Steve to her satisfaction.

Sue and Bruce patched both of them up physically and Darcy started – all over again, it seemed – on the psyches of both Steve and Natasha. All Steve could talk about was the Winter Soldier and how he had to find his friend Bucky. Natasha retreated into her grim silence, although she didn't barricade herself into her room this time, but let Darcy fuss over and feed her. She didn't speak for days.

Tony and Pepper returned with their own stories to tell. Tony's chest without its glowing blue light spooked all of them at first, and Pepper's glowing flamy eyes whenever she got irritated with Tony (every ten minutes) would never stop being creepy. But then Darcy had a sneaking suspicion that Pepper had superpowers even before Extremis. No one could be that efficient _naturally_.

Then Steve found Bucky and brought him back to the Tower, and their weird little family increased by one more crazy Russian with issues. Even though Bucky wasn't Russian. Just spoke it a lot.

Everything had sort of settled down again and Natasha had actually spoken a few words (mainly Russian, to Bucky) when Coulson turned up alive and threw them all back into shock when he walked into girls' lunch. He was going to be the Director of the new, improved S.H.I.E.L.D. and wanted them all on board. He was, of course, approaching the women first. He wasn't stupid. Any one of the men would probably have punched him into next week. Jane wasn't present, fortunately, because she would probably have attempted to punch him into next week as well. Or called Thor.

Maria Hill (the latest addition to the girls' lunches) just told him to fuck off. Darcy applauded and demanded her iPod back.

Coulson actually smiled, shook Maria's hand and wished her well, looked at a tight-lipped Natasha and nodded a little sadly.

"I'll see what I can do, Miss Lewis," he said. And then, on the way to the elevator, he turned and said to Natasha, "Where _is_ Hawkeye, by the way?"

Darcy swore she hadn't blinked. But Natasha was suddenly holding Coulson up against the wall by his tie, a knife at his throat, shouting in Russian.

It took a forcefield from Sue to get her off him, and eventually they made Phil sit down and explain himself since Natasha was quite clearly lost in her own head, screaming in Russian still.

"I thought he was with her," Phil croaked, getting his tie-turned-noose loosened finally. "He's _always_ with her."

"Oh," Pepper said in a tone of enlightenment. "Are they..? Tony wondered. Said they seemed close."

"Not like _that_," Coulson said. "They're just – close. It's kind of hard to explain. Look, I've been out of the loop a long time. The last I heard, they were off on a deep-cover mission together in – somewhere I can't tell you about. Right after the Battle of New York. When did Natasha come back?"

"Months ago," Darcy spoke, as everyone else was looking too stunned. "With a broken arm. But we've never seen Hawkeye. I've never even met him. Have any of you?"

They all nodded, even Storm, Rogue and Shadowcat. (Yes, girls' lunches had grown rather. What of it? They were badly outnumbered by the male superheroes. Even if Sif came along, as Darcy had invited her to).

"Huh. I think I'm jealous. I've only seen photos of Hawt Arms Guy," Darcy sulked, crossing her arms. Maria rolled her eyes at her in a _shut the fuck up, you inappropriate idiot_ way.

"Natasha," Coulson turned to the Russian, actually looking concerned. "_Agent Romanoff_. Where and when did you last see Hawkeye?"

Natasha took a few minutes to control her breathing. "I thought he was out, and on another mission," she finally said accusingly to Maria. "A solo one."

Maria just shook her head. "There was no other mission, of that I'm sure. The last status update I had of him was before – well, before Washington and the Triskelion. Still undercover. And his file wasn't in your data dump, Natasha. I know you deleted it before you let it all go."

"I deleted the whole undercover database," Natasha said sullenly. "I had to, or they were all dead."

"You just left them all with no extraction plans," Coulson said rather coldly. "I've spent the last couple of weeks working with handlers to try and pull asses out of the fire all over, and some of them _didn't_ make it. But no one seemed to know where Hawkeye was." He paused, seemed about to say something else, caught Maria's eye and seemed to change his mind. "Will he need extraction, Agent Romanoff?"

Natasha sank back into her chair, putting her face in her hands. "Coulson, by now he could be dead. Or worse." Her voice was almost breaking. Darcy couldn't help patting her on the back, even though she was slightly concerned about getting a knife in the ribs for her trouble.

"What's _worse_?" It was Sue Storm who asked what the others were all afraid to.

"The place in Poland was a biological research facility," it was Maria who answered after a few long moments of silence. "A HYDRA facility. Secret. And not in the databases – not even in the undercover one, because we _knew_ there were leaks, and we didn't want anyone to know that we knew about it. Only Fury, myself, and agents Romanoff and Barton knew of its existence."

"We were sent in to infiltrate," Natasha took up the story. "Clint was going to join the local workforce and get in on the ground floor as a grunt. Work his way up the security hierarchy. I was there to seduce a scientist – any scientist. Find out what the fuck was going on, because the place was so damn secretive no one knew anything. We didn't even know exactly where the facility _was_."

"What went wrong, Natasha?" Coulson asked, not unkindly. "How did you break your arm?"

"Stupid, stupid fucking accident," she sighed wearily. "I'd finally got one of the nerds to look up from his test tubes. He was taking me out to dinner, I put my hand on his thigh and he crashed the fucking car. Killed himself instantly and I broke my arm. Woke up in the local hospital. One of my local contacts let me know that HYDRA – paranoid bastards – didn't think the death was an accident and they were coming for me. I bugged out as per protocol. Getting picked up by the Russian mob is one thing, HYDRA's quite another," she seemed to be trying to justify herself to Coulson and Maria, who both nodded reassuringly.

"You were quite right," Maria said, "and Hawkeye confirmed through message channels a few days later. He actually got a promotion because he pointed the finger at you. After sending your local contact to tip you off."

"Jeez, he sold you out? _Cold_," Kitty Pryde commented. Rogue nudged her to silence.

"He'd already assured her safety," Coulson said firmly.

"And he'd been checking in through channels regularly," Maria said, "letting us know that he was still on mission."

Natasha sighed. "Lying bastard. He knew I wouldn't have left him in there alone for long. He sent me messages privately that the mission was finished and he'd been reassigned."

"Wait, wait," Darcy said while they all digested that. "What's all this about messages? Surely he can't just be emailing you from a secure HYDRA facility?"

Natasha looked amused. "Simple things, Darcy, prearranged signals. Ordering a certain e-book or magazine going to his cover identity's Kindle. The message can mean anything from _get me the fuck out of here now_ to _meet me in Caesar's Palace next Wednesday_. Hawkeye checks in with me at least once a week or he knows damn well I'll be coming to get him. His next check-in isn't due until tomorrow, which means he could have been compromised for six days already."

"So you two _do_ have a thing?" Darcy asked intelligently.

"Not the kind of _thing_ you're thinking about," was the dry response. "We did once, about ten years ago. But Clint likes his women exclusive and I – can't do that. He was married once, wasn't he Coulson?"

"That didn't last long," Coulson said drily. "Agent Morse didn't do the exclusive thing either. And she didn't have your excuse – er, excellent reasons."

"Oh dear, poor Agent Barton," Pepper said.

There was surely a story behind the way Maria, Natasha and Coulson all snorted and rolled their eyes, but it was going to have to wait for another time.

Pepper took command after a few moments of silence. She pointed sternly at Coulson. "Get out."

He raised his eyebrows at her and gave her his unimpressed face.

"No," Pepper responded. "Because right now we can't trust any SHIELD resources. And neither can you. We have to move fast because it's only a matter of time before someone who used to be SHIELD winds up at that HYDRA facility and Hawkeye is recognised. If it's not already too late. It's been weeks already since the breakdown and so many people are unaccounted for."

Natasha shivered, and Pepper spared her a glance but carried on ruthlessly. "We don't have time for you to waste figuring out who you can trust and who you can't. So get out. We'll take care of this on our own."

Coulson took a moment to rake his eyes around the room, obviously deciding if everyone there was to be trusted with Hawkeye's safety. Darcy decided not to feel insulted that his eyes lingered longest on her when she realised that she was the only person present without superpowers (Maria's icy calm totally counted as a superpower).

"Good luck," was all Coulson said before the elevator doors closed behind him.

**Comments please!**


	2. Part 2 - Found

**Part Two – Found**

Ororo and Sue both apologised, but had to excuse themselves from the mission. They all understood. If anything happened to Storm, leadership of the X-Men would devolve to Wolverine, which was probably the worst idea anyone had ever heard. And if anything happened to Sue, the Fantastic Four would be neither Fantastic nor Four. Plus there was still something going on with her and Dr Doom that she wouldn't discuss but quite possibly prevented the super-villain from blowing up the world, so they couldn't risk it.

"I'll leave you Kitty and Rogue," Ororo opened her hand towards the two younger women (and why did no one ever call Rogue by her real name, huh? Anna Marie wasn't _that_ bad).

"I'm not taking children into – whatever we're going into," Natasha started.

"I'm twenty-one," Rogue said firmly.

"And I'm going," Kitty said just as firmly, "and good luck stopping me."

"We really can't," Maria pointed out when Natasha looked stubborn. "She even walks through Sue's force-fields."

Sue and Ororo looked at each other. "We'd better go," Sue decided, "before we find out too much about what you're up to and someone asks. I'm really not good at lying to Reed."

"Do you want any more backup?" Ororo asked. "You can have the jet, Rogue can fly it. I could send Log-"

"No!" it was a chorus from everyone in the room. Ororo smiled slightly and tried again. "Bobby?"

"No," from both Rogue and Kitty. They glanced at each other, glanced away again, smirked. When Rogue had a few drinks their first lunch (obviously they didn't give Kitty any) she'd started talking about Iceman and how eventually they'd both given up on him when they decided he liked playing them off against each other a little too much. There was some sort of crazy kiss-me-chase-me thing going with Kitty and Colossus now – mainly involving Kitty chasing and Colossus running, because hello, under-age – and Darcy was sure Rogue had a thing for Wolverine. Because clearly she was insane.

"We're gonna keep this to just us," Maria said firmly. "Involving any of the men is a no-no. We need to be subtle, and none of them are good at that."

"No shit, Sherlock!" Darcy grinned. No one was pointing at her and saying she couldn't go. Maybe they just hadn't noticed she was there yet? But they didn't tell her to leave, so she was gonna stick around for a while yet. Someone needed to be the voice of reason in this whole shit-show, and it looked like Maria and Pepper weren't putting their hands up.

Sue and Ororo left, and the six of them remaining gathered around the table, leftover dishes and glasses being swept to one side as they started planning.

Darcy was never afterwards sure how she ended up agreeing to run communications from inside the X-Jet while the others went into the facility to get HawtGuy out. Probably, she eventually decided, because they had to leave someone behind to mind the store and she was the obvious choice. Sitting in an invisible aeroplane just listening to them being fantastically kickass seemed like cheating, though.

Although the job got a little bit harder when Tony Stark hacked them and started shouting over the comm demanding to know what the fuck they were doing, they'd said they were just going out for drinks and why was Pepper's cell-phone in Europe?

"This is why we left the men out of it," Pepper said sharply over the comm just as something blew up in the not-far-enough-distance and the jet rocked slightly on its wheels. Darcy clutched at the arms of her seat, alarmed.

"You brought your _phone_, Pep?" Maria said disbelievingly, and Pepper sighed.

"Forgot to leave it behind. He'd have noticed that too, believe me. Tony? Fuck off. We're busy, and you aren't going to get here in time to help."

Tony spluttered, but Darcy had by now managed to figure out how to cut him out of the circuit and did so. She listened to a few more minutes of battle chatter, mainly Maria, Pepper and Rogue – Natasha almost never said anything and Kitty had gone silent except for occasional hushed check-ins – and then suddenly Kitty's voice came loud and clear.

"I've found him. And he's not alone. Fuck me, Barton, what have you done this time?"

"You know I'm not going to fuck you, little cat, you're far too young for me," drawled a low, husky voice that almost made Darcy wet herself. My God, HawtGuy's voice was as sexy as his arms. "I understand I've been cast in the role of prince-needing-to-be-rescued by the SuperGirls, but I assure you it's not necessary, ladies."

Obviously Kitty had given Hawkeye the spare comm she'd put in her pocket for him.

"You are so dead, Barton," Natasha said menacingly.

"Don't be like that, Nat, you know you love me."

"Not after you just called me a SuperGirl."

There was giggling over the comm. Both Rogue and Kitty, Darcy saw, looking at the traces on her computer screen. And – _Maria_?!

"If we could possibly get back to the issue of the rescue," Hawkeye drawled after a moment waiting for the giggles to die down, "I am not in need of rescuing, but I have two young friends here who are."

"They're in some sort of freaky cells," Kitty sounded a bit breathless. "I can get in but I can't get them out. I think we're going to need explosives."

"On my way," came Natasha's curt response.

It all went a bit quiet after that, except for the increasingly frequent explosions. Darcy tried to keep her cool, pinging all their comms regularly and getting acknowledgements back. Hawkeye sighed after the third time she pinged him.

"Stop pinging me, Maria, I'll let you know if there's a problem!"

"I'm not pinging you, I'm shooting opposition off your ass," Maria said a bit breathlessly. "Darcy's running comms."

There was silence for a moment. Then "Who's Darcy? One of yours, kitten?"

"No. She's with you guys. Avengers," Kitty clarified.

"Excuse _me_," Darcy said, offended, "I can introduce myself to HawtGuy just fine."

Giggles broke out again, and she realised she'd called him HawtGuy instead of Hawkeye. Squeezing her eyes shut, she was glad he couldn't see her scarlet cheeks. Well, _this_ was going to be really embarrassing.

"I'm looking forward to it, sugar," that voice that should be totally illegal purred. "It'll be my genuine pleasure. Hopefully yours too."

Darcy put her head on the desk. "Natasha, you didn't tell me he was a slut," she said, trying desperately to joke her way out of this enormous hole she'd dug for herself. "I thought you were the one who had a problem with exclusivity?"

"Oh, I'll be exclusively yours anytime, sugar," Hawkeye promised right behind her ear, and she whipped round to see him standing there grinning smugly down at her, his eyes raking over her appreciatively.

The effect was somewhat ruined by the unconscious dark-haired girl in his arms. Kitty stood at his shoulder, trying to look apologetic, but unable to stop giggling.

"Enough, Shadowcat," Darcy said, trying and failing to sound menacing. "Who's this? Put her down here, please," she indicated the triage bay.

"Her name's Wanda. She's a mutant, she was held captive here..."

Darcy had a really weird sensation. Everything in front of her eyes was blurring, but she didn't feel faint or sick. She lifted a hand and waved it in front of her face in confusion. Hawkeye sighed as he settled Wanda gently on the stretcher.

"Quicksilver, stop it. She can't even see you, you're going to make her sick."

The blurring condensed suddenly into a young man – a boy, really. White-haired and blue-eyed, he crouched nervously, protectively, beside the unconscious girl on the stretcher.

"This is Pietro. Quicksilver. He's Wanda's twin," Hawkeye introduced. Rogue came belting into the jet at that moment, flung herself into the pilot's seat and started flipping switches. No one gave her a second glance. "They were the subjects of the research at this place."

"Oh," Darcy's heart broke for the two kids. They couldn't be older than about fifteen, even younger than Kitty. She moved slowly, not wanting to startle Pietro. "It's all right," she soothed in as gentle a voice as she could manage. "I've got first aid training." And thank God Bruce had suggested that, so she could assist him when the other Avengers suffered wounds. "Will you let me look? I promise I won't hurt her."

Pietro looked at Hawkeye. The older man nodded at him, and the boy moved slowly back from his sister, allowing Darcy close.

Maria was next into the jet, Pepper and Natasha hard on her heels, Pepper still glowing faintly around the edges, and Rogue had them in the air even before the ramp was closed. Darcy wobbled as they picked up altitude, and strong hands steadied her.

"Thank you." She still didn't want to look at Hawkeye. She'd deal with the embarrassment later. Right now there was a patient to treat. She gently thumbed up Wanda's eyelid and shone a light in her eye.

"No!" she didn't even see the movement from Pietro, but the light was struck from her hand and went skittering across the floor. Darcy shook her stinging hand with a gasp of shock.

"Hit her again, boy, and I'll break you in half," Hawkeye snarled, and Pietro cowered down as though it wasn't an empty threat.

"How are you even going to catch him?" Darcy asked practically, "it's all right, he didn't hurt me. Pietro, I need to see if your sister's eyes are reacting to light. She might have a concussion. How did she get knocked out?"

"She didn't, she fainted," Hawkeye said. "Overused her power. Nat's explosives only blew their cells partly. Wanda's telekinetic, she did the rest."

"I see." Darcy could see bloodstains under Wanda's nostrils and at her earlobes now. Sue had told her of similar effects, and since Sue was the only person she knew who had a mental power anything like this, that was all the reference she had to go on. "Well – there's not much I can do for that. Any other injuries to her?"

There weren't.

"Anyone else?"

Maria rather sheepishly presented a cut on her arm which Darcy dressed. They all settled down for the flight home, Darcy tactfully asking Pietro to help her buckle a couple of straps over Wanda's body to keep her in place just in case she slid around on the stretcher. The boy refused a seat himself and sat down by his sister, wild eyes watching everyone else. Except Hawkeye. There was obviously an established trust there.

Natasha embraced her partner once, roughly, and then punched him hard in the guts.

"Nice to see you too," he huffed, bending over. Natasha responded with a storm of Russian he just laughed at and said;

"You and I remember Budapest very differently, I'm sure I've told you that before."

Natasha sniffed and sat down with her back to him pointedly. Pepper patted his arm, smilingly saying she was glad to see him well.

"Ouch, fuck, Pepper!" he looked at the singed skin in shock.

"Sorry!" she sat down hastily, closing her eyes and obviously concentrating. Darcy hoped the seats were fireproof.

Maria had taken the co-pilot's seat after Darcy had dressed her wound, and Kitty was already asleep. Shadowcat could sleep _anywhere_.

"Let me take a look at that," Darcy said shyly when Hawkeye's eyes turned to her. She totally got where his nickname came from. Those _eyes_. She knew he was a long-range sniper, but they were really intense, a deep grey-blue. She felt as though she was pinned to the spot.

"At what?" he gave her a suggestive smile.

"The burn Pepper just gave you," she said. "Those biceps are a work of art and it would be a shame to spoil them with a handprint-shaped scar, huh? Girls might think someone's branded you."

He gave her an absolutely filthy grin, letting her push him into a seat. "You could put a handprint on me any time. I wouldn't mind getting branded by _your_ hands."

"Wow, you really are a slut," Darcy said admiringly. "Does this dirty-talk pick-up method work for you often?"

She didn't understand the look Barton gave Wanda's unconscious form. "I'm hoping it will this time."

"What is _with_ you? You don't even know me!" Darcy slapped burn cream on the mark on his arm with unnecessary force. He didn't even wince. Of course, he didn't know that she was being rough not because he was annoying her, but because otherwise she'd be tempted to start caressing his biceps. Because. Those. Arms.

"Not yet." The suggestive grin again, followed by another glance at Wanda.

"And if you keep looking at her like that, I'm going to report you for paedophilia," she snapped, tossing a dressing in his lap. "She can't even be half your age."

Agent Barton laughed, picked up the dressing and opened it, slapping it on his arm. "I'll share the joke later, Darcy. I don't think you're in the mood just now."

**Comments please? There's one more part of this to come.**


	3. Part 3 - There And Back Again

**Part Three – There And Back Again**

Of course, after they got back to New York Darcy didn't see Barton for weeks. He disappeared into debriefings with Coulson and then took off with Natasha. To assassinate HYDRA members, Coulson told her quite bluntly when she asked one day. Where Natasha was. Not HawtGuy. She didn't give a shit about him.

Except – before he left, he'd apparently told Pietro and Wanda that they could trust her, because they clung to her like she was their mom, even though she had only just a decade on them. They both gave everyone else wide, terrified eyes, and Wanda wouldn't even speak in the presence of anyone else but Darcy and Pietro. Darcy tried to ask them why they trusted her but no one else, but the only answer she got was five muttered words from Pietro.

"Hawkeye said to trust you."

That was it. Wanda said nothing and just gazed at her with wide, troubled eyes if she asked, so Darcy eventually gave up and concentrated on looking after the two traumatised teenagers. Tony gave her a larger apartment to accommodate the three of them and she became their full-time minder.

It was almost a month after the twins had moved in with Darcy when Wanda started using her powers again, floating the remote control for the TV over to Darcy's hand when they were all snuggled on the couch and couldn't be bothered to reach for it. Darcy tried hard not to react, but couldn't resist a quiet "Thank you."

Wanda was startled to be thanked, instead of reprimanded or worse, for using her powers. But from that day, she began using them more and more, and Pietro slowly lost his terrified, haunted look and became more confident and less clingy.

Storm asked the twins to move to the Xavier Institute. They were X-gene positive, after all, and under eighteen. They both flatly refused. Even when Darcy offered to go with them.

"Our place is here," Wanda said finally when they pressed, and the way she looked at Ororo silenced the white-haired woman. "With the Avengers."

Darcy absolutely hated the way these people all seemed to talk with some weird subtext. Because Ororo simply inclined her head gracefully and never raised the topic again. And a few days later Pietro actually approached Steve and asked to spar with him.

Steve's eyebrows nearly hit his hairline, but he agreed at once. Quicksilver's speed was such that Steve could barely see him most of the time, but the kid didn't have the strength to get big hits in, so generally he just whizzed around Steve annoying him like a gnat. Darcy tried not to giggle at the look on Steve's face. It was less funny when Steve got a lucky swing in, catching Pietro in just the wrong spot and sending him flying across the gym.

A moment later it was Steve flying across the gym, hitting the wall with a thump as Wanda surged to her feet.

"No!" Darcy shouted, flinging herself in front of the Scarlet Witch's upraised hands, only realising just how recklessly stupid a move that had been when someone else hit her from the side and flung her out of the way, rolling them both across the floor and shielding her under heavy muscles.

The muscles at first made Darcy think it was Bucky who'd thrown her clear. And indeed, when her head cleared enough for her to focus, it was blue eyes staring into hers from a range of about two inches. But they weren't the pale, icy blue of the Winter Soldier. They were a deeper, greyish-blue, a colour she'd only ever seen on one man, piercing into what felt like her soul.

"Darcy," Hawkeye breathed softly against her lips – she could actually feel his breath on her mouth.

"What. The. Fuck," she choked out. "Get. _Off!"_

Barton actually had the gall to look surprised. But he climbed off, and fuck, she could breathe again. The man was _heavy_.

A moment later he was swarmed under by Wanda and Pietro, both of whom literally flung themselves on him and started hugging him tightly. He laughed, hugging them both back, but his eyes never left where Darcy was levering herself up from the floor.

"Okay," Darcy said, finally regaining her feet, and finally losing her temper. "What the fuck is it that you all know, that you're not telling me?" She was shouting by the time she reached the end of the question.

Clint looked at Wanda in surprise. "You didn't tell her?"

And Wanda actually _smiled_, a cheeky, secretive little smile. "Don't be lazy, Clint. Good things are worth putting in the effort for." And she linked her arm with her brother's and led him out of the gym, cooing over the bump on his head. Steve followed them, apologising and being apologised to in turn. Darcy's eyes opened wide. It was the first time Wanda had directly spoken to Captain America, to her knowledge. She rarely spoke in the presence of any of the men at all.

"They look better," Clint said quietly in her ear. "You've been doing an amazing job with them."

Darcy turned on him, put her hands on her hips, changed her mind and poked him in the chest with one finger. Trying not to notice how very firm he was. And why didn't any of his shirts have sleeves? _No, Lewis, no, keep your eyes on his._

"Start talking. Because something really fucking weird has been going on from day dot with those two kids and you and for some reason _me_, and I think you all know about it and I don't, and I don't fucking well like it!"

Clint sighed, scrubbed both hands through his short dark blond hair, and then sighed again. "Fuck. Wanda was right. I've been lazy." He looked down at the floor, then looked back up at Darcy through long eyelashes. "I'm no good with talking to women."

"You could have fooled me," Darcy retorted, laughing slightly as she recalled the first time she'd heard him speak.

"No, really, I …" he sighed again. "Can I buy you a coffee?"

"Not until you've spilled the word." She folded her arms across her chest, then unfolded them to poke him in the chest again as his eyes dropped. "And no looking at the goods. Eyes up here, Barton."

"Fine," he lifted his eyes back to hers. "Wanda's not just telekinetic. She _knows_ stuff. Sorta like clairvoyancy. The day you guys arrived to break us out, she snapped upright out of sleep, looked right at me and said _"she's coming, Hawkeye."_

"_The one for you. She's coming. She'll be here soon."_

"_What the hell do you mean?" Clint stared at the teenage girl. He'd befriended them both slowly, when left on night guard duty. No one had talked to the poor kids as anything other than lab rats in the whole two years – two _years_! – the children had been here. He'd turned on the intercoms and started talking to them the first night he'd been left alone in the observation room on guard. It turned out they hadn't even known the other was present. Pietro had cried. He'd thought his sister was dead._

"_The one for you. You're gonna marry her. And we're gonna get little brothers and a little sister one day." Wanda's glazed expression was spooky. He'd already promised to adopt both the kids when he got them out of here. _When_, not if. He refused to think about the possibilities of _if_._

"_Do I know her?" he half-begged, wondering if Wanda could possibly be right. He'd given up – after Tasha and Bobbi – on finding a woman he could love and respect who would actually feel the same way about him._

"_You've seen her but never spoken. She's so pretty. Oh, I can't wait!" Wanda clapped her hands together, actually smiling for the first time he'd seen. "One look in those blue eyes and you're a goner, Hawkeye!"_

Darcy actually gaped. She literally couldn't think of a thing to say. For once.

"Once I realised who was along on the mission, I realised it had to be you. Even before I saw you. I knew all the others well, but you I'd only ever seen at a distance, in New Mexico. And then I looked in those big blue eyes and Wanda was right." His already husky, sultry voice dropped even lower, making her shiver, and he stepped a little closer, invading her personal space, lifting a big hand to caress her cheek. "I was a goner."

Still nothing. Except she was gonna fucking _kill_ Wanda for not tipping her off to this. For letting this gorgeous man have such a disgracefully unfair advantage over her. What happened to female solidarity?

"It wasn't fair, was it, Darcy?" Clint murmured. "I knew as soon as I heard your voice over the comm. That we're gonna get married and have kids one day. All I could think when I saw you was that I'm the luckiest guy alive because you're so fucking beautiful every time I'm near you I can't breathe."

His thumb was tracing over her lower lip now. And finally Darcy found her voice. "YOU can't breathe?"

"Nup," one corner of his mouth kicked up in a smile. "Will you adopt Wanda and Pietro with me?"

"Yes?" Her brain was totally short-circuited by his closeness. Her breasts were actually touching his chest, and she was quite sure that he must be able to feel her nipples, hard as acorns inside her bra.

"And give them little brothers and a sister?"

"Can we talk about that at a future date? Like – after you actually get around to kissing me?"

His thumb pressed lightly against her jaw, parting her lips gently. "Any time you like, sweetheart." And he finally bent his head and slanted his mouth over hers.

Upstairs, ensconced on the sofa in Darcy's apartment, Wanda smiled and leant her head against her brother's shoulder. Her family was coming together at last. "What do you think we should convince Mom and Dad to name our siblings, Pietro?"

**So – yeah. Dunno where that came from. I was having writer's block on **_**A Shattered Reflection**_** and surfing google images for Age of Ultron, and I was just thinking about how very young Witch and Quicksilver look in the CA:TWS end credits scene. And this popped up in my head. I was tired, and I write Darcy quite well when I'm tired because she's very much a slightly random stream of consciousness (in my headcanon, anyway).**

**Comments always welcome and I hope you enjoyed!**


End file.
